One of the main reasons for the rise of the Ottoman state from a small Anatolian beylik to an empire spanning three continents was the inclusion of the conquered elites and dynasties into the Ottoman ruling nomenclature. This key imperial concept, demonstrated on several different levels during the centuries-long history of the Ottoman Empire, will be tested through this project. The existing secondary literature has already shown that numerous members of the Byzantine and Balkan aristocracy held important positions at the sultan’s court and in the provinces, including the highest ones. In the Balkan provinces of the empire, a significant part of the Christian high and middle nobility was incorporated into the Ottoman military system as timar-holders (fief-holders). On average, Christians in the Balkans accounted for 20% of all timar-holders in the 15th century. Despite these facts, the narrative that has been dominating the Serbian academia and especially the general public reads that most of the Serbian nobility died in conflicts with Turks while those who managed to survive fled north of the Sava and Danube rivers, where they continued to provide resistance under the protection of the Hungarian crown.
The NOBILITY project seeks to revise the theory which asserts that the nobility was either killed or fled during the Ottoman conquest. The same theory claims that the new Serbian elite was formed only decades later from the ranks of local leaders of lower origin and not as a continuation of the medieval nobility. Our concept is based on the opinion that the medieval Christian nobility was not annihilated; it was incorporated in different ways into the Ottoman state apparatus, and over time, it was transformed into the early modern elite of noble but also non-noble origin.
The project aims to explore the ability of the medieval Serbian nobility to adapt to the newly established non-Christian rule and to explore the ways in which they negotiated their position. The aim will be approached by examining the following research questions:
- How many members of the Serbian nobility entered the Ottoman military service as sipahis (fief-holding cavalrymen)? Until when were they present in significant numbers in the Ottoman army? How did the changes in the Ottoman imperial policies, especially those intertwined with a re-examination of the Sunni orthodoxy and the attitude of Islam towards other religions in general, affect their position and the very meaning of the term sipahi in the early modern Serbian parlance?
- How many men and women born into noble families became members of the Ottoman court in the 15th century? Based on what criteria do we evaluate their influence and power in this dynamic, multilingual, and multiethnic political and cultural setting? Were they, and until when, just the more or less willing political mediators in the process of the Ottoman takeover of the lands their families once ruled, or people whose presence at the court affected the cultural and intellectual currents emanating from the center of the Ottoman government?
- To what extent did the nobility retain its previous financial power? Did it still have the right of ownership over certain economic facilities? Did the new government provide an opportunity for local Christians to invest money in lucrative affairs, or did they consciously limit them? Among the Christian entrepreneurs, were there any members of the thin bourgeois layer of non-noble origin which began to form in the Serbian lands by the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, or members of the rich peasantry?
- What can be concluded about the identity of Orthodox Christian nobility in Ottoman Serbia based on the material markings of their status – housing, clothing and patronage? Were the upper echelons of Serbian society influenced by Ottoman culture, and if so, how? Can their way of life be considered comparable to those of the provincial nobility/elite in Europe or other parts of the empire?
- Bearing in mind that the Ottomans did not recognize the concept of blood nobility, it is necessary to explore the transformation of medieval nobility into early modern elite, which included social, political, military, financial and ecclesiastical elite with aristocratic pretensions but often not with aristocratic pedigrees. The question is, who was considered of noble origin/elite among Orthodox Christians in 17th- and 18th-century Ottoman Serbia?
By answering these questions, the NOBILITY project aspires to contribute to a better understanding of the complex problem of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, which continues to spark numerous debates in scholarship and to radically advance the general understanding of the imperial policy of the Ottoman Empire and its relationship with the Balkan Christian elite. It also seeks to affirm the need for a systematic study of the Ottoman period of Serbian history.